This superb table exemplifies a type introduced during the Late Baroque period that persisted into the Rococo. Both the 1772 and 1786 Philadelphia price lists record “Card tables With Round Corners” as one of three models available. The simplest rendition, with “Claw feet & plain knees,” was £5, as compared to tables with Marlborough feet or crooked legs listed at £3 and £3.10.0, respectively. “Leaves on knees & carved molding” increased the price another three pounds, while the addition of “Carved Rales” raised it two more, for a total of £10, making it the most expensive table one could order.

Related examples: Downs 1952, no.343; Antiques 94 (September 1968), p. 302; Hummel 1976, pp. 108, 113–14; Cooper 1980, p. 192; Burke 1981, pp. 114–15; Flanigan 1986, pp. 44–45; Conger 1991, p. 166–67, no. 80; Sotheby’s, New York, sale 6132, January 30–February 2, 1991, lot 1459, now at Chipstone, and one at PMA (acc. no. 67–69–1). The Bayou Bend table’s carving relates to that on a slab table illustrated in Downs 1952, no. 359.

Book excerpt: Warren, David B., Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.